ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- It wasn't so long ago that the Craftsman Truck Series was the butt of jokes, but the conversation is changing as a group of veteran drivers strive to pull the series out of the Wild West.
Friday evening's Truck Series race at Rockingham Speedway marked the 21st consecutive event that ended on the scheduled lap instead of in overtime. This 21st race broke the series record set during the 2017 season. The last time a Truck Series race went to overtime was May 10, 2024, at Darlington Raceway.
So what changed?
"I think what it is, is that you've got a field full of -- a majority of the field -- with guys at least two, three, four, five years under their belts," Tyler Ankrum said in response to a question from AltDriver. "You just don't see that. I think with the competition being stiffer, I think this is also a healthier series now.
"I feel like even four or five years ago, it was still kind of the Wild West. That was just the stepping stone. You could win three or four (races), you got your Xfinity ride, you got your Cup ride. But I feel like that now, it's a higher age bracket in the Truck Series. I feel like when I got in the truck in '19 and '20, it was like half the field was under the age of 20."
.@LayneRiggs99 gets the lead!
And @LayneRiggs99 gets his first career stage win! pic.twitter.com/h6sumLFA5f
— NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) April 18, 2025
The advanced age of competitors has certainly benefited the Truck Series and led to cleaner finishes, but this is not the only factor. Ankrum also highlighted how technology has changed over the past few years.
The Rockingham winner's first major season in the Truck Series was 2019. Ankrum said that the Truck Series teams did not have as much access to the simulator. It was certainly new to him as a rookie, even though he overcame the lack of sim time to win a fuel mileage race at Kentucky Speedway.
COVID-19 then further disrupted Ankrum's growth in 2020. He and his fellow fresh-faced drivers no longer had access to practice sessions. They just showed up at the track, raced, and learned in the eye of the storm.
Years later, many of these drivers have gained crucial experience in the third-tier NASCAR series as they have aged. They have learned more about dirty air and how the trucks handle each style of racing.
Of course, the series hasn't been perfect. The crash-filled 2023 season finale at Phoenix was a prominent example as the drivers received justified criticism for egregious wrecks, but they have put in effort in the months since to clean up the on-track product.
So far, the efforts have paid off with cleaner races overall.
"We get to watch the Cup guys and the Xfinity guys every weekend, and we get to learn from their mistakes, right," Ankrum added. "We get to learn what not to do instead of what to do sometimes.
"I know we had our big talking to in Daytona last year after Phoenix, but ever since then, it's been amazing."